GIS-based challan system for traffic violators in Delhi

New Delhi, India: The Indian capital will soon implement electronic challan system for penalising traffic violators. Traffic cops will be armed with pocketbook-sized mini computers attached with a camera and a printer. The camera will be able to take pictures of the defaulter, fancy number plates, unauthorised red beacons etc which will act as documentary evidence for reference, said traffic officials. This device will be GPRS and GIS enabled and the location and time of the challan issued will be recorded.

“Transport department has to share data with us so that we can update the information in one central server. At the moment, we have vehicle ownership and stolen vehicle details available with us, as well as a databank on all traffic challans. We just need details of drivers” licenses,” said a senior traffic police officer.

The device can also function offline and store up to 500 challans in its expandable 16 GB memory and then upload these challans to the server once it connects again.

It can even send a message to the central server once a vehicle has been towed away. The vehicle owner can then contact a helpline number with his vehicle details to get an SMS detailing where the vehicle has been towed away to.

The tender for INR 14-crore project has already been awarded to a telecom giant, which will provide traffic cops with 1,200 handheld devices by the end of this year. With the use of these devices, fines can be paid using credit cards and the device will be connected to a central server for instant digitisation of violation data.

The device can access traffic offence history of both the vehicle and the offender and hence repeat offenders will be issued greater penalties as per the Motor Vehicles Act. Currently, all traffic violations are treated as “first offence” as it is not possible to check violators for earlier prosecutions.

“As per the contract, the devices are expected to be ready within 90 days but we are planning a partial launch much ahead of this. Depending on the logistics, some of the devices should be in use by December-end or early January,” said joint commissioner of police (traffic) Satyendra Garg.